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Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union, has written in the union’s newspaper:
It is in the interests of postal workers and all working people at home and abroad to stop the madness of the bloated military budget and domination by the military industrial complex. As called for by APWU and AFL-CIO convention resolutions, let’s bring the war dollars home, insist that our tax dollars are used to improve our day-to-day lives and collective societal needs, such as health care, education, public transportation, affordable housing, childcare, food, clean water, addressing the climate crisis, and safe, good paying union jobs, including for veterans.
Dimondstein’s statement comes as Veterans and Labor for Sensible Priorities, a coalition of trade unionists and veterans, is campaigning for H.R. 1134, a bill to move $100 billion from the military budget to funding social programs and dealing with climate change.
The Climate Crisis and Militarism Project of Veterans for Peace, an initiator of the campaign, says, “The issues of climate crisis, workers and labor, environmental justice, and militarism must all be addressed. Not only the fossil fuel industry, but also the military-industrial complex must be reduced.”
Just Transition, they say, means creating good union jobs to provide continued employment for workers currently in fossil fuel corporations and the military-industrial complex. Just Transition includes facilitating justice to communities damaged by corporate pollution, including monetary reparations and shutdowns of toxic industrial sites.
If “jobs” are not to be an argument for war, there must be a Just Transition for defense-related workers.
For sign-on statement supporting H.R. 1134: bit.ly/VL4SP-signon